Solar up-draft tower to enable atmospheric photocatalysis for non-CO2 greenhouse gases removal: an emerging negative emission technology

Project Information

STEPforGGR

Grant agreement ID: 871998

DOI

10.3030/871998

Project closed

EC signature date 27 November 2019

Start date 1 December 2020

End date 30 November 2025

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 455 400,00

EU contribution

€ 276 000,00

Coordinated by

THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - STEPforGGR (Solar up-draft tower to enable atmospheric photocatalysis for non-CO2 greenhouse gases removal: an emerging negative emission technology)

Reporting period: 2020-12-01 to 2023-11-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

What is the problem/issue being addressed?
To date little attention has been given to the removal of atmospheric non-CO2 greenhouse gases (GHGs). Global Warming Potential (GWP) is a measure of the potency of a GHG and many non-CO2 atmospheric gases have a high GWP. The three most important (methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and dichloro-difluoromethane (CCl2F2 – also known as CFC-12) - collectively HiGWPGs (high GWP gases)) represent almost 30% of radiative forcing (RF) of the long-lived (lifetimes ≥ 10 years) GHGs. Whereas the removal of atmospheric CO2 could lead to significant re-emission from the ocean, this is likely to be less significant for atmospheric HiGWPGs given their relatively small presence in the ocean.
HiGWPGs can be eliminated by photocatalysis (PC) transforming them into benign atmospheric gases, water vapour and small amounts of volatile compounds, all of which would be much less potent GHGs than their precursors. These photocatalytic processes enable us to harness sunlight to promote the destruction of CH4, N2O and the fluorocarbon and have been proved very effective at lab scale. This project aims to develop these processes at much larger scale as greenhouse gas removal (GGR) technologies, so that they can be applied to tackle real life climate crisis.

Why is it important for society?
Global climate policy is a three-legged stool requiring the simultaneous reduction of dependence on fossil fuel, increase in dependence on GHG-neutral fuels, and GGR to bridge the gap between the other two. If any of these legs falls short, climate policy will not be compatible with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) intention of 'holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 ºC above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ºC above pre-industrial levels'.

What are the overall objectives?
This project has five overarching research objectives (ROs):
RO1 To identify rate limiting step(s) among mass transfer and reaction processes. (RQ1)
RO2 To enhance mass transfer, maximise photon utilisation and optimise reaction zones. (RQ1)
RO3 To develop monolithic photoreactor integrated with artificial light sources for night operation strategies. (RQ1)
RO4 To evaluate scalability of systems based on required space/land and cost; (RQ2)
RO5 To assess sustainability of the process including test of catalyst durability and environmental impact of degraded products. (RQ3)
Moreover, STEPforGGR has been purposely designed to target three additional knowledge transfer objectives (KTOs):
KTO1 To fully embrace public engagement.
KTO2 Organise and deliver a series of workshops, training schools, and secondments.
KTO3 To develop and strengthen research and innovation partnerships.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

All work performed so far and the main results achieved can be summarised using some selected publications as listed below.

1. Hanbing Xiong, Tingzhen Ming, Yongjia Wu, Wei Li, Liwen Mu, Renaud de Richter, Suying Yan, Yanping Yuan, Chong Peng, Numerical analysis of a negative emission technology of methane to mitigate climate change, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2023.02.048
2. Yun Wang, Haiyuan Zhang, Jie Zhang, Yijie Fu, Yuyin Wang, Yang Bai, Xin Feng, Jiahua Zhu, Xiaohua Lu, Liwen Mu, Wei Li, Low-concentration methane removal: what can we learn from high-concentration methane conversion? https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2023/cy/d3cy00810j
3. Hanbing Xiong, Tingzhen Ming, Yongjia Wu, Caixia Wang, Qiong Chen, Wei Li, Liwen Mu, Renaud de Richter, Yanping Yuan, Numerical analysis of solar chimney power plant integrated with CH4 photocatalytic reactors for fighting global warming under ambient crosswind, Renewable Energy, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2022.11.024
4. Yimin SHAO, Yang BAI, WU Yongjia, Tingzhen MING, Renaud de RICHTER, Xianfeng FAN, LU Xiaohua, LI Wei. (2022), A low-energy approach to process large scale airflow. Energy Sci. Eng. https://doi.org/10.1002/ese3.1348
5. Yuyin Wang, Tingzhen Ming, Wei Li, Qingchun Yuan, Renaud de Richter, Philip Davies, Sylvain Caillol (2022), Atmospheric removal of methane by enhancing the natural hydroxyl radical sink. Greenhouse. Gas. Sci. Technol. https://doi.org/10.1002/ghg.2191
7. Tingzhen Ming, Hanbing Xiong, Tianhao Shi, Yongjia Wu, Caixia Wang, Yuangao Wen, Wei Li, Renaud de Richter, N. Zhou, A novel green technology: Reducing carbon dioxide and eliminating methane from the atmosphere, International Journal of Energy Research, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1002/er.8675
8. Jie Zhang, Yuyin Wang, Yu Wang, Yang Bai, Xin Feng, Jiahua Zhu, Xiaohua Lu, Liwen Mu, Tingzhen Ming, Renaud de Richter, Wei Li, Solar Driven Gas Phase Advanced Oxidation Processes for Methane Removal – Challenges and Perspectives, Chemistry – A European Journal, 2022.
https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.202201984
9. Tingzhen Ming, Wei Li, Qingchun Yuan, Philip Davies, Renaud de Richter, Chong Peng, Qihong Deng, Yanping Yuan, Sylvain Caillol, Nan Zhou, Perspectives on removal of atmospheric methane. Advances in Applied Energy, 2022, 100085. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adapen.2022.100085
10. Yanfang Huang, Yimin Shao, Yang Bai, Qingchun Yuan, Tingzhen Ming, Philip Davies, Xiaohua Lu, Renaud de Richter, and Wei Li, Feasibility of Solar Updraft Towers as Photocatalytic Reactors for Removal of Atmospheric Methane–The Role of Catalysts and Rate Limiting Steps. Frontiers in Chemistry, 2021, 9, 745347. https://doi.org/10.3389/fchem.2021.745347
11. Tingzhen Ming, Haoyu Gui, Tianhao Shi, Hanbing Xiong, Yongjia Wu, Yimin Shao, Wei Li, Xiaohua Lu, Renaud de Richter, Solar chimney power plant integrated with a photocatalytic reactor to remove atmospheric methane: A numerical analysis. Solar Energy, 2021, 226, 101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2021.08.024

Main achievements for the project so far.

1. We have identified bottle necks (rate limiting steps, work package 1 (WP1)) and provided solutions for optimization of the complex process through modelling and experiments (WPs2&3), as well as estimated the scalability (WP4) and sustainability (WP5) of the truly pioneering greenhouse gas removal technology at the climatically relevant scale.
2. 32 person months of secondment implemented, including 20 person months EC funded and 12 person months from the Third Country partners. This is 66% of secondments planned, despite the travel restrictions in the first two years of this period. As travel restrictions are now all lifted, we will catch up with the pace of performing secondments and will reach the overall person months as planned.
3. Through these 32 person months of secondment, we produced multiple avenues for career development, cross-sectorial experience, and academic training in a multi-cultural, interdisciplinary and intersectoral environment formed by a consortium of six world leading research organizations and one industrial partner.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Beyond the state of the art, we are developing prototypes to demonstrate the technology at scale. We expect to utilise these prototypes to 1) to attract further funding from industrial sectors for the next stage of research and development, 2) to perform socio-economic impact analysis based on standard techno-economic analysis and life cycle assessment methodologies, 3) to demonstrate and disseminate the results of this project to wider and general public.

Images for Summary for publication